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Comment by samvher | Hacker News Reader

I have worked in an environment where it really did seem to matter. An organization set up by Harvard folks where other Harvard folks seemed to have advantages in (a) getting in and (b) getting ahead. It wasn't ever really addressed explicitly (though "credentialism" was occasionally mentioned by others as well, I wasn't the only one who noticed). It definitely played a role in my leaving that organization.

Edit - I do feel like I should mention that the organization was improving on this front when I left.

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I live in a non US country so we can for once have the counterfactual, as for us harvard does not exist.

I have worked in an environment where {maths degrees} really did seem to matter. An organization set up by people with {maths degrees} where other people with {maths degrees} seemed to have advantages in (a) getting in and (b) getting ahead. It wasn't ever really addressed explicitly (though "credentialism" was occasionally mentioned by others as well, I wasn't the only one who noticed). It definitely played zero role in my leaving that organization.

Maybe the problem is that maths degrees exist.

I'm from a non US country, so the concept of a Harvard is foreign to me as well. And yes, I've also worked for selective employers where maths degrees mattered a lot. It never bothered me.

Not sure what you're trying to say. Hiring people based on individual merit and skills is not the same thing as hiring people based on an exclusive network. The Harvard employer favored Harvard folks over others who otherwise had the same (or better) skills.

I doubt anyone anywhere ever has been the "best" hire - even / especially the greatest hires of all time, there was someone who had the same (or better) skills.

There are ~8 billion others, rounded to the nearest meaningful number ~8 billion people never saw the job ad or applied for it or were eligable because of the exclusive network of "countries".

Unless there is an epidemic of Harvard Art Majors being made Head of Brain Surgery upon graduation on the back of their credentials, their merit and skill is still contributing something.

I don't like the exclusive network of countries either... I guess we have different perceptions of what's fair/acceptable.

Don't worry, all your political leaders went to Harvard and the Kennedy School. :-)

I believe none of them have - they all went to Oxford / Cambridge, why would they step down to an inferior institution that would only hold them back in life?

Francophone Africa is laughing at us in Sorbonne.

When the snow falls they're found in St. Moritz

I agree with this {affinity} theory. I've been working 30+ years since my Physics degree. I learned programming on the job as there were no web sites or YouTube to learn from. I love meeting other Physics majors in the software industry because we can connect with similar stories. I noticed every hiring manager has bias towards candidates with their background. They will prefer people from their home country, their university, their social connections.

Surely you can see the difference between having domain expertise and having association with a particular brand?

The company was (lab based) biotech - zero maths needed - but management liked the way mathematicians think. Their brand / religion was maths and it beat out domain experience every time.

Do you really think the way someone thinks is just a brand? That the ability to think mathematically is... a religion? I think our worldviews are too far apart for us to make sense to each other here.

This reply is almost entirely a category error.

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